Master Perfumer Yann Vasnier and Celine Roux via Yann Vasnier's Instagram

The new English Oak Collection of fragrances were born from a working collaboration between Jo Malone's Vice President of Global Fragrance Development, Celine Roux and Master Perfumer, Yann Vasnier. M. Vasnier has the ability to infuse his creations with palpable textures and buoyant colors and adds his unmistakable charm and signature to Jo Malone's unique, proprietary materials  (as he did with The Bloomsbury Set).  

via Yann Vasnier Intsagram

English Oak & Redcurrant and English Oak & Hazelnut, are based on the scent of oak chips that have been washed and roasted, yielding a sweet, phenolic and smoky absolute. While this essence, the lifeblood of oak, is central to both fragrances, the top note features other magical plants from the English countryside.

via Yann Vasnier Instagram

Long before King Arthur convened his Knights to a table crafted from a single, round plank of oak, sacred oak trees were being fashioned into powerful staffs and magical wands. The ancient Celts and Druids revered the trees for their strength and longevity. Until the middle of the 19th century, oaken timbers, the Heart of Oak, were used to build the ships that, for good or ill, powered the ascendancy of the British Empire. 

Ad Image for the English Oak Collection via Jo Malone

The great, gnarled king of the forest has been celebrated by poets, playwrights and storytellers, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Kipling and Tolkien, to name but a few. Stories, legends and poems have drawn us all into the magic and mystery of the English groves of oak and the forests of Sherwood and Dean. Today who better to offer a distillation of oaken enchantment than Jo Malone London, the house that serves as innovator as well as guardian of the perfumed aesthetic of British gardens, woodlands and meadows.

Ad Image for the English Oak Collection via Jo Malone

With my first breath of English Oak & Redcurrant I hear W.B. Yeats', "The Song of the Wandering Aengus", set to music by the late American composer John Duke. In the poem, a fairy tale of sorts, the Wandering Aengus (a Celtic god-like being of love) cuts a hazel wand to fish, searches for berries, and drops the fruit into a stream, catching an ephemeral, enchanted being, a charmed trout that transforms into a glimmering girl, a vision that haunts the Aengus for the rest of his life. English Oak & Redcurrant opens with the tart redcurrant berry, the watery element of a fast flowing steam, a glimmer of pink pepper and a silvery transparency of mandarin and musk. This sparkling opening refreshes for about ten minutes before the woody strength of the oak tree, the romance of the rose and faint peppery amber warm the perfume, suffusing my skin with a tawny, golden, near sultry aura that lasts for three hours and more. This exquisite combination of roasted oak and rose has, like the oak tree itself, an amazing longevity.  English Oak & Redcurrant sings for at least eight hours, fading at last to musk and dry oak with just a hint of berry. The scent trail is sometimes significant, other times almost invisible, but always magical. Notes: Redcurrant, pink pepper, mandarin, rose and roasted oak.

English Oak & Hazelnut offers another kind of magic – a green and crunchy spell with an initial sharp and spicy charm.  And while this fragrances still draws me to The Song of the Wandering Aengus, (and his magic hazel wand) the English Oak & Hazelnut cologne is more earthy, a scent that reaches to the roots of my being and calls up memories of childhood forests, woodlands long lost to time and, sadly, to the ruthless development of the land. The crisp green of the first touch is transformed after ten to fifteen minutes by a rich, woody sweetness of vetiver root and cedar.  A veneer of dry oak, at first colored by the vetiver, becomes more prominent and phenolic as the fragrance dries down.  Once again the longevity and strength of the oak tree fortifies the cologne, creating an 8-hour otherworldly impression of sacred space. The beautiful roasted oak absolute is more obvious in this Hazelnut iteration than in the Redcurrant version.  The result is a slightly more "masculine" fragrance that I find extremely centering and "courageous", cologne that lends me the soul and the strength of the enchanted, ancient English Oaks. Notes: Green hazelnut, cedar, vetiver, amber and roasted oak.

Disclaimer:  I would like to thank Jo Malone London for these beautiful fragrances. My opinions are my own.

Gail Gross,  Editor

Yann Vasnier via Instagram

Art Direction Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief; I have used Yann Vasnier’s Instagram photos, which were taken at the Jo Malone Townhouse and Jo Malone's Ad Images. Special thanks to Yann 

The fragrances in the English Oak Collection are available at select stockists and online at Jo Malone London where they are available for pre-order.